Surgical speculum

ABSTRACT

A two piece speculum consists of opposied, canal spreading blades, each having at its outer end a rigidly integral pivot member of which the pivot member of one of the blades is telescoped into the pivot member of the other blade to permit relative pivotal spreading of the two blades about a common axis. The pivot members are capable of being interlocked as, for example, by interengaging teeth or by frictional interengagement of surfaces of the two pivot members to hold the blades in any relative position to which they may be spread; and the contractile force of the canal wall serves to keep the pivot members interlocked to hold the blades in adjusted angular relationship.

United States Patent 1 Panzer Oct. 30, 1973 SURGICAL SPECULUM [76] Inventor: Norman Panzer, 71 Blanchard Rd.,

South Orange, NJ. 07079 [22] Filed: Feb. 9, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 224,687

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/1971 Lindgren 128/17 4/1971 Gasper.... 10/1966 Ryan 287/101 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Great Britain 16/171 Primary Examiner-Lucie H. Laudenslager Attorney-Robert Henderson [57] ABSTRACT A two piece speculum consists of opposied, canal spreading blades, each having at its outer end a rigidly integral pivot member of which the pivot member of one of the blades is telescoped into the pivot member of the other blade to permit relative pivotal spreading of the two blades about a common axis. The pivot members are capable of being interlocked as, for example, by interengaging teeth or by frictional interengagement of surfaces of the two pivot members to hold the blades in any relative position to which they may be spread; and the contractile force of the canal wall serves to keep the pivot members interlocked to hold the blades in adjusted angular relationship.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures SURGICAL SPECULUM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A common characteristic of prior surgical specula is the presence of a rather long handle which extends from corresponding outer end areas of the blades approximately perpendicularly to the general line or lines of extension of the blades.

Such handles, in many prior devices, have been provided to serve various purposes, particularly any one or more of the following purposes, to wit:

1. as a member which a physician may grasp to rotate the speculum in the vaginal canal to facilitate treatment or inspection of the canals wall,

- 2. to carry means for translationally shifting separate pivot points of the two blades relatively to each other to spread the outer end of the speculum, and

3. to carry means for'locking the blades in any angular relationship to which they may have been adjusted.

Such handles, however, present some serious drawbacks both in radiographic procedure and in other procedures such as operative or mere inspection procedures.

In certain radiographic procedure, it is desirable for the speculum to remain in place in the patients vaginal canal while the patient lies on the X-ray table during the radiographic exposure. In that procedure, such a handle would be in an upright position with its extremity pressing downwardly against the rigid X-ray table. Such pressure is transmitted to the rather mobile internal generative organs of the patient, thereby very undesirably distorting those organs from their normal anatomic relationship. Thus, the resulting radiograph would be misleading since an abnormality may be obscured.

In inspection procedure, the physician would desire to rotate the speculum, a few degrees at a time, within the patient so that, in the areas betweeen the separated blades of the speculum, he could obtain a clear, undistorted view successively of all the different wall portions about the vagina. With prior specula, encumbered by such long handles, the latter, during attempted rotation of the speculum, suffers interference from the thighs of even the most cooperative patient. Such interference renders difficult the manipulation of the speculum by the physician with some impairment of the inspection. To minimize such interference from the thighs, the manipulation of the device involves some sidewise pushing thereof to enable the long handles to clear the thighs, all with considerable discomfort to the patient. A

THIS INVENTION OVERCOMES THE MENTIONED DIFFICULTIES OF PRIOR SPECULA Although the speculum of this invention may be adapted for use in various cavities or canals of the anatomy, it is described herein as adapted for the indicated vaginal use for which it is particularly suitable and advantageous. Also, it should be noted that while the speculum of this invention may be of metal, it is preferably made of suitable plastic material to enable its production so economically that the speculum may be discarded after a single use. With some advantage, the plastic material is preferably quite clear or transparent.

As compared to prior specula, the present invention, by providing the telescoping blade-pivoting arrangement mentioned in the foregoing abstract, avoids the need for a long handle.

It thereby enables the blades of the speculum to remain within the patients vagina during X-ray exposure while yielding a radiograph in which there is no objectionable distortion with respect to the anatomic relationship of the generative organs.

Also, the omission of such a long handle in the present invention enables the physician easily to rotate the speculum within the vagina to conduct a satisfactory inspection without objectionable discomfort to the patient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an improved surgical speculum according to a preferred embodiment of this invention as before insertion of the blades thereof into a patients vagina.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view thereof showing two separable blade members of which the device is preferably constituted.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view as seen from the directional arrow 3 which has been applied to FIG. I, this FIG. 3 showing a contracted or closed condition of the device in full lines and a spread or open condition thereof as indicated by showing the upper blade in broken lines.

FIG. 4 is an exploded, fragmentary view of pivot members of a modified embodiment of the invention, illustrating alternative means for locking the blade members in various angular positions to which they may be adjusted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring first to FIGS. 1-3, the device of this invention may comprise as few as two parts, shown as an upper blade member 10 and a lower blade member 1 1. These members, preferably of clear, molded plastic material, may be made separately and may be kept separate until the device is to be used.

The upper blade member 10 comprises a blade portion 12 of relatively thin material formed to the shape of an inverted elongate spoon, upright arms 13 defining therebetween a rather large mouth 14 and fixed at their lower ends to a generally cylindrical outer pivot element 15 having a finger key 16 fixed to andprotruding from the element 15, preferably at a central point of the latter.

The lower blade member 11 comprises a blade portion 17 somewhat similar to the blade portion 12 of the upper blade member but having its cavity facing up wardly in opposition to the downwardly facing cavity of the upper members blade portion 12. The blade portion 17 is rigidly connected at one side thereof by a sturdy neck portion 18 to an inner pivot element in the form of a stud 19 which is circular in cross section and slightly tapered to tightly engage frictionally within a somewhat complementally tapered bore 20 in the outer pivot element provided on the other blade member.

The relative tapering of the pivot element 19 and the bore 20 should be such that, when pressed axially together, the two blade members 10 and 11 will be firmly held in adjusted relative positions.

It is suggested that the two blade members may be of plastic of slightly different degrees of resiliency, c.g., one of polystyrene and the other of polypropylene, so that the tapering interengagement of the pivot elements l5 and 19 will be tight enough, when pressed forcibly together, to hold the two blade members and 11 against material relative angular movement.

Alternatively, the interengaging tapered surfaces of and 20, or at least one of them, may be ground to toughen them and cause them to interengage firmly when forcibly pressed together to hold the blade members l0 and 11 in any angular position to which they are adjusted.

THE USE OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT After application of suitable lubricant only to the blade portions 12 and 17, and with the two parts shown in FIG. 2 assembled as in FIGS. 1 and 3, the physician, grasping the outer pivot element 15 and, if necessary, the key 16, inserts the two blade portions 12 and 17 into the vagina.

Then, he shifts the outer pivot element 15 slightly rightwardly relatively to the pivot element 19 to release the frictional interengagement of those two pivot elements to enable the two blade portions 12 and 17 to be relatively separated angularly, as indicated in broken lines in FIG. 3,. By such angular adjustment of the blade portions, the wall areas of the vagina are dilated to the extent desired for the projected inspection, or operative, or radiographic purpose. When this angular adjstment has been accomplished, the two pivot elements 15 and 19 are pressed firmly together axially to maintain the accomplished adjustment.

When the device is inserted and the vagina dilated as just described, the opening 14 is ample for giving a direct view therethrough into the vagina and upon the cervix at the mouth of the uterus. Said opening also suffices for giving access for internal operative procedures. In addition, the lowermost parts of the speculum, i.e., the outer pivot element 15 and the key 16, are well above the surface of any X-ray table upon which the patient may be lying. Thus, there is no pressure from the device on the patients generative organs which could cause a radiograph to give a false indication of the relative positions of those organs in the patient's body.

If an inspection of the entire vaginal wall is to be had, the already expanded device may easily be turned a few degrees at a time while in the patient without interference from the patient's thighs and without objectionable discomfort to the patient. At each such turn of a few degrees, the physician has a clear, unimpeded view of that portion of the vaginal wall which is between the substantially separated, opposed side margins of the two blade portions of the device. See 12 in broken lines and 17 in full lines in FIG. 3. Thus, through several limited turns of the speculum, the entire vaginal wall may be inspected. Such step by step turning of the device is facilitated by the availabilty of the key 16 for manipulation by the physician.

THE MODIFIED EMBODIMENT OF FIG. 4.

The modified embodiment differs from the embodiment of FIGS. l-3 only in that an inner pivot element 19a is cylindrical rather than slightly tapered and telescopes complementally into a cylindrical bore 20a in an outer pivot element 15a with coacting teeth 21 and 22, formed respectively on the end of the pivot element 19a and the inner end of the bore 20a, so arranged as to interlock when the element 19a is fully seated within said bore. As far as the physician user is concerned, the

manner of locking the blade members in any adjusted angular relationship is substantially the same in the use of the two described embodiments.

In both embodiments, the parts are preferably so arranged that, when the pivot portions of the two blade members are fully interlocked, the blade portions 12 and 17 are in vertical alignment within the vagina. The tendency of the vagina to contract has the effect of opposing any departure of the blade portions from such vertical alignment and thereby tends strongly to hold the speculum locked in its adjusted expanded condition.

This invention, wherein a previously sterilized speculum may be discarded after a single use, increases the facility of providing antiseptic conditions for vaginal inspectional and operative procedures.

It should also be noted that the simplicity of the two pieces constituting the device enables specula according to this invention to be very economically manufactured.

It will be realized that this invention may be utilized in structural arrangements other than those disclosed herein without departing from the inventive concept as set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A surgical speculum comprising:

a. a pair of opposed canal-spreading blades one of which has a relatively large open mouth at its outer end, and

b. a pivot assembly extending across said mouth, at a marginal portion thereof and substantially clear of interfering relation to said mouths opening;

c. said pivot assembly comprising two intertelescoping, relatively rotatable pivot elements one of which is generally cylindrical and is rigidly connected adjacent its opposite ends to opposite side portions of said mouth, and the other of which is a stud rigidly connected at one end thereof to one side of the other of said blades and is slideable axially into a complementally shaped bore in said one of the pivot elements for turning therewithin to angularly adjust said blades; and holding means coacting between the two said pivot elements, when said stud is fully extended into said bore, to hold said blades in relative angular positions to which they are adjusted, and said blades being in face to face alignment when said stud is thus fully extended into the bore; the contractile force of a related canal wall upon said blades serving to maintain said alignment and thereby maintain the effectiveness of said holding means.

2. A surgical speculum according to claim 1, said holding means comprising coacting tapering surfaces of said stud and bore which, when axially pressed together, frictionally oppose relative rotation of said pair of blades.

3. A surgical speculum according to claim 1, said holding means comprising circular series of teeth on said stud and within said bore so relatively positioned that they are in holding interengagement in one axial relationship of said two pivot elements and are disengaged in another axial relationship of said two pivot elements.

4. A surgical speculum according to claim 4, said teeth on the stud being at the latters extremity and said teeth within said bore being at the latters bottom end. '4 

1. A surgical speculum comprising: a. a pair of opposed canal-spreading blades one of which has a relatively large open mouth at its outer end, and b. a pivot assembly extending across said mouth, at a marginal portion thereof and substantially clear of interfering relation to said mouth''s opening; c. said pivot assembly comprising two intertelescoping, relatively rotatable pivot elements one of which is generally cylindrical and is rigidly connected adjacent its opposite ends to opposite side portions of said mouth, and the other of which is a stud rigidly connected at one end thereof to one side of the other of said blades and is slideable axially into a complementally shaped bore in said one of the pivot elements for turning therewithin to angularly adjust said blades; and d. holding means coacting between the two said pivot elements, when said stud is fully extended into said bore, to hold said blades in relative angular positions to which they are adjusted, and said blades being in face to face alignment when said stud is thus fully extended into the bore; the contractile force of a related canal wall upon said blades serving to maintain said alignment and thereby maintain the effectiveness of said holding means.
 2. A surgical speculum according to claim 1, said holding means comprising coacting tapering surfaces of said stud and bore which, when axially pressed together, frictionally oppose relative rotation of said pair of blades.
 3. A surgical speculum according to claim 1, said holding means comprising circular series of teeth on said stud and within said bore so relatively positioned that they are in holding interengagement in one axial relationship of said two pivot elements and are disengaged in another axial relationship of said two pivot elements.
 4. A surgical speculum according to claim 4, said teeth on the stud being at the latter''s extremity and said teeth within said bore being at the latter''s bottom end. 